Plus there is the fact that messing with the Wards during movie night when they have been corteous despite being caught in the middle of a fight between Taylor and the government would be bullying. In fact if she does that then Taylor becomes Madison, a girl who restlessly bullied Taylor in petty ways not because she was a psycho or she hate anything about her in particular, but because doing so was an easy way of getting in Sophia and Emma's good graces and due to her circumstances Taylor couldn't properly defend herself. And in this case attacking the Wards who are at worse a reluctant tool of the adults, knowing that they have to take the abuse for as long as the strategy of the PRT/Protectorate is for her to make friends would be far too much like being like Madison tripping her in the classroom or make rumors where she can hear, and Taylor most certainly is no Madison.
Since all they have to do is pretend Taylor doesn't exist instead of constantly harassing her, the two situations are nothing alike at all. Particularly since not being your friend is not actually bullying, whereas academic fraud, emotional and mental abuse, battery, theft, etc, etc actually are.
It's why I see Connie as being Taylor's only actual ally. She's the only one who has even acknowledged Taylor's voice. Lily might want to be her friend, but so far it's only been a fair-weather one and those don't really matter.
It has nothing to do with being a tool of the adults. They can make their own choices, and just like the adults, are denying Taylor's. That makes them just as culpable and responsible for what Implacable illustrated as a textbook example of hostile work environment.
Which made me just notice
Simple, because if asked what her issues are that makes her want to quit, she'll tell them and they can't do anything about it.
They have been reasonably accommodating in Boston.
going back to check 2.6 again to plumb the Wards in it.
No, they haven't been reasonable. They've treated the dirt outside more reasonably than they have Taylor. Particularly considering that as 2.6 demonstrates in abundance, virtually everyone in Department 24 doesn't even recognize Taylor exists, and expects Phase to stop being so heathenistically villainous and fall into conformity because that's the only route her life has now and it'll all be better once she sees the light, their treatment of her is in essence nothing more than a continuation of what she received at Winslow. Less humiliation in exchange for more callous disregard to agency and independence. Sure, the verbal abuse that was a mainstay in Implacable only just now started (face to face with Taylor, that is) here with Roulette, but I'm sure that'll pick up given most of the reactions to the tour.
I think the fact that they can very much do something about her issues, but in point of fact refuse to do so to such an extremity that they won't even accord her the same dignity they (did) Shadow Stalker pre Jim, or a canonical post-Leviathan Armsmaster, is only frosting on top of the incompetency cake.
Which is why I felt mentioning FirstSelector's Implacable omake the other page to be so poignantly ironic. Because Pisces wanted nothing to do with Wards, the "honor" of serving under Legend didn't matter anymore than the fact she only had "issues" because Piggot was a cunt to such a degree that Dolores Umbridge would ask for tips. Ironically, Armstrong has the Dumbledore vibe to him to accompany that.
Distant but polite is a very good way of not giving too much ground while at the same time gaining the high ground by showing she can be mature enough not to make a scandal of every little action done by the PRT and saving her more stringent complaints for the important stuff. Taylor's current plan is to hold up until she is 18, she needs to carefully pick her fights in order to last that long, and that means not making herself an open enemy of the Wards while at the same time gather more support from her only meaningful ally, Jim, the YG guy. And despite hating him as a person I admit that he is at least moderately uncomfortable with the amount of socialization Taylor is currently missing (as depicted in the first interlude) so showing him that she's at least doing a token effort to appear to interact with people her age will prevent him joining the 'Let's force the teen girl to have friends' out of not completely misplaced concern (Taylor do need friends and to talk with people of her own age, but it would be better if she get those in her own terms).
Every offense of indoctrination and attempted violation of her rights is "important stuff". That she's a victim of the very organization and not a ward of the state simply because of stuff like Aisha, Burnscar or hell, Vasil type CPS issues, or examples from other fics like No Good Deed (or for more lewd ones, The Infamous Hebert Temper) where she was all-out orphaned, it's doubly important that the simple fact of the matter is the minor not only has the ability to say "No, I won't fly the flag.", but an entire organization mandated by Congress backing the validity of such a choice up by ensuring it is treated with respect and not farcical appellations of typical teenage rebellion, and that the PRT can't void their base human rights because "I say so.", as the one bad parental phrase goes.
Considering the date of said interlude, I'd say that anybody who expects her to be socializing, especially with Wards, is undeserving of being pissed on were they to be on fire.
Hell, given what I said above about 2.6 and Roulette, all it takes is one of the kool-aid drinkers to say something like "Nobody likes her. Nobody wants her here." and oopsies, there goes Boston pretending they can say they're any different from ENE. At that point, how many days, months, or years it's been doesn't matter.
